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Mark Webber's fourth-place finish is the only reward for Red Bull

March 25, 2012

Mark Webber is fourth in the Formula One championship points race after two events. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Mark Webber brought his Red Bull safely home in fourth place for the second race in a row in Malaysia, giving his Formula One team at least some reward after reigning world champion and teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to make the points.

Webber struggled to get up to speed on the intermediate tire and lost a lot of time in the pits at the change to slicks when he had to wait to exit as much of the field came down the pit lane.

“I felt confident before the race was red-flagged,” Webber said. “And then after the restart, we went to the [intermediate tires] pretty quickly, everyone decided to do that, which was the right thing to do. But it took me too long to get comfortable with the car on the intermediates.

“It was a very, very long stint, and not very F1, driving around with that little grip. But all of us had to get on with it and keep the cars on the black stuff. And when the track started to go dry, I felt much happier obviously, and we were going along alright.

“I think when it's mixed like that on the intermediates especially it's down to how you have the balance, how the pressures are, and the feeling and the confidence of the driver in those conditions.

Despite his frustrations, Webber was satisfied with the result.

“Still plenty of positives for us out of this weekend. We would have liked a better result, but there were some inspired calls up at the front. When you're in a position to roll a dice a little bit you might get a double six, and [that's what] those guys did.”